This invention generally relates to packaging for food products, especially food product strips and sliced meats, as well as to a procedure for enabling such packaging. More particularly, the packaging combines a food-containing flexible pouch within a tent-style carton. The size and shape of the flexible pouch, as well as the quantity, weight and volume of food within the pouch, are the same as those of those designed, sized and shaped as packages for retail sale without a paperboard carton thereover. In addition, the assembly of the pouch and carton is sized arid shaped so as to fit within the same retail space which is intended to accommodate the dimensions of a stand-alone pouch which is not within a carton.
Upright display merchandisers for food products have very strict display face dimension limits. In order to avoid wasting valuable retail display space, the width of each product must divide evenly into the total shelf facing width. For example, a shelf having a total facing width of 30 inches will evenly accommodate six rows of food packages if those rows each fit within a maximum facing width of five inches. Of course, in this example, a width of not much less than five inches is also desired in order to make maximum use of the available space. What cannot be tolerated in this situation, however, is having the food package require even only slightly more than five inches (in this example) of lateral shelf space for merchandiser facing width.
In order to avoid improper alignment of packages and in order to avoid disruption of neighboring packages when a package is removed from one row, a typical upright display merchandiser has a plurality of elongated, generally horizontal pegs, often in combination with a plurality of demarcation members which specifically define respective rows, with the respective pegs being generally horizontally centered between the respective demarcation members. Certain merchandisers can provide demarcation members which take the form of self-contained organizers. In a simpler form, these demarcation members take the form of dividers which are positioned at evenly spaced locations along the length of the shelf. In the example presented above, each such divider, wall, or demarcation member would be spaced every five inches (on centers) in order to accommodate six rows of packages within a 30 inch facing width shelf. In this instance, pouches (when used without an over-carton) are sized to fit within the available space. The flexibility of pouches provides some extra accommodation to these size constraints when the pouches are used in a stand-alone manner. The advantage of this accommodative aspect of flexible pouches is forfeited when the pouch is placed within an outer carton which maintains its dimensions unless subjected to extraordinary and damaging forces.
In many upright display merchandiser situations, package depth also is limited. Because of this, often it is not possible to make a packaged product which is narrower and proportionally deeper in order to accommodate the same weight of food product in a narrower package. This option is not even conceptually available when it is decided that the same pouch size is to be used whether for a pouch-only package (cartonless pouch) or for a package having the pouch positioned within a carton. Such a requirement for same pouch size can be done for economic, capital equipment and convenience reasons.
The size accommodation issue can be more restrictive when the food package products are to be peggable. When a multiple-component package combination of a pouch and a carton are to be peggable, in many situations, this requires a peg-accommodation hole which must be provided in both the pouch and the carton, and which holes must be aligned in one form or another. This accommodation issue also is rendered more difficult when the upper portion of the pouch designed for gaining access to the food product includes a strip such as a zipper-type strip which permits access into and reclosure of the pouch cavity. Such strips often also add thickness to the pouch, requiring a greater volume in order to accommodate the strip, such as between closely spaced opposing panels of a carton. This added bulk and stiffness which is characteristic of a strip-containing mouth or access portion of a pouch is the minimum spacing required between carton walls, which is especially problematic in tent-style cartons where the opposing upper wall portions engage each other or are very closely spaced from each other.
The present invention addresses the difficulties and concerns which occur when a pouch which is designed to maximize space available in a peg display or in an upright display merchandiser is to be made available in a combined package wherein the pouch is positioned within a non-flexible carton which is rigid or semi-rigid, at Least in a longitudinal orientation. These difficulties and concerns are addressed by the present invention without having to modify the size or shape of the pouch or the weight, sizing or orientation of the food within the pouch.